Roy Keane left with egg on face as Trent Alexander-Arnold defensive reality emerges

The main criticism levelled at since he broke into the team is that his defending leaves a lot to be desired. , rather than because of it, with his incredible attacking qualities making up for his shortcomings at the back.

However, while there may have been an element of truth to that earlier on in his career, his defending has undeniably improved in recent years, and a stat from this season shared by journalist Dougie Critchley highlighted that. Critchley wrote: "14 tackles, a tally topped only by Moises Caicedo and Antonee Robinson in the Premier League. A 64% tackle success rate, better than Gabriel and Calafiori. The Trent Alexander-Arnold can't defend narrative is just lazy at this point."

The tweet by Critchley, who is employed by Sky Sports as a European football expert, comes after another Sky Sports employee, Roy Keane,

When it was confirmed that the defender would be lining up in an unfamiliar left-back role for England's Nations League game against Finland, Keane responded: "If you saw him the other night [against Greece] defending, it looked like he'd never played right-back before. Later on during the ITV broadcast, Keane added: "I still can't believe how bad he is defensively and against a quality team he's going to get found out."

And Keane was at it again after Liverpool's win over Chelsea last weekend. Alexander-Arnold was taken off during that match with nine minutes of normal time remaining, and . "Trent – everyone thought he was brilliant defensively but the manager took him off with ten minutes to go," Keane said, before sarcastically adding: "Brilliant, isn't it? But anyway, that's not the point. Ten minutes to go, you're 2-1 and you take him off – that's a great message. We really trust you defensively."

Alexander-Arnold has started all but one of Liverpool's matches in all competitions, which suggests Slot has plenty of trust in the player's ability to defend. Also, it was reported by this week that Alexander-Arnold has been playing with muscular discomfort since the international break, and Slot's decision to bring him off against Chelsea may well have been influenced by that.